Eric's 3rd birthday

If it's February, we must be going to a birthday party. Today was our nephew Eric's turn. It was held at a place called Kid Junction in Branchburg, NJ. The kids had a real fun time, especially with the large multi-level play area with slides, tubes and bridges to climb on. Jason, Brian and Eric had a great time running around together. It was really great to see the three of them getting along so well and having so much fun.

Here is Eric just after blowing out his candles:



Eric and Brian really enjoyed the cake





Here's Jason having a great time climbing around the play area.



Meanwhile, TJ is off camping this weekend despite the 10 inches of snow we got on Friday! Good thing it is in a heated cabin. Hope he manages to keep himself dry and warm.

random PKD-related stuff from around the cybersphere

I've been pretty light on my blogging lately. I guess it's a combination of being busy with lots of other things and not having too much to blog about of late.

I did recently discover a PKD-related mailing list named PKDCARE on Yahoo that appears to have a good amount of traffic and a number of well-informed and helpful people subscribed to it. Click here if you are interested in checking it out.

I learned about this newsgroup from Bill Peckham's blog Dialysis from the sharp end of the needle which is a really fine blog dedicated to chronic kidney disease and dialysis. I've linked to it on the right side of the page and would definitely recommend a visit.

It's good to see that PKD Pugilist is actively blogging again.

And, finally, I was out on the PKD website the other night, and was surpised to find a link to a PKD related article from our local newspaper, the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Happy 4th Birthday Brian and Jason

Today was Brian and Jason's fourth birthday. We didn't get to have much of a celebration today, with it being Ash Wednesday on top of everything else going on. But, we did manage to find time for Brian and Jason to open up their birthday present - a racing track for their Hot Wheels cars. They really seem to be enjoying it.





We did have a small party for them on Saturday. Both sets of grandparents came over and we had cake and presents. Here's some pictures from the party:

A couple of weeks back, we had our nephews Eric and Matthew over for the weekend. Yes, four boys under four years of age together in the same house! The four boys had a really good time together.

My favorite was bath time. Unfortunately, we couldn't convince Matthew to join in the fun.

Nicole Sardaro (1967-2008)

Today, we went to the funeral for Jeanne's cousin, Nicole, who passed away on Friday after her car skidded off of an icy road and ran into a tree.

Our hearts and prayers go out to her parents, Mary Lou and John and to her sister Danielle. Tragically, this is not the first child that Mary Lou and John have had to bury. A little more than 15 years ago, they lost their three youngest teenage children in a car accident - also a result of bad weather.

I have always had the greatest admiration for Mary Lou and John. Somehow, they were able to recover from their earlier tragedy and have been able to continue on with their lives as truly happy people. They have always been an inspiration to me - knowing that if they can survive what they went through, then certainly I should also be able to survive whatever my crisis happens to be at that moment in time.

I have also always admired their relationship with each other. The depth of the love they have for each other is very apparant. I hope and pray that together they can find the strength and courage to pull themselves through one more time.